Story of a Wanderer
by JCA99
Summary: An irritable Quarian mercenary sets out to join her friend on an adventure with a Spectre to save council space... And the inhabitants of the galaxy as a whole. Her adventures takes her to the awe-inspiring Citadel, the colony of Feros, and finally the Prothean planet of Virmire. POSTPONED!


**Hello viewers this is my second story based on Mass Effect video game. This kinda moves fast at first but it will slow down a bit later. I hope you enjoy my newest story. Read on! EDIT: made a minor edit to what weapons she had. ANOTHER EDIT: changed name,**

Ari'Vannis nar Rayya... Or was it Denra? It didn't matter, the Denra was gone, and the Rayya had become her new home. Ari lay on a crate in the abandoned hanger, adjusting the sight on her Volkov sniper rifle. She checked her kinetic barriers, which was her late father's. While in truth he had actually died years ago fighting the Geth. Ari's mother died after she left for her pilgrimage, it was then Ari decided she wouldn't return to the Flotilla. She had been hired by Aria, the asteroid city's ruler, to break up a slaving syndicate. Normally she wouldn't care as long as she got a cut of the profits, but they wouldn't give her a cut. So here she was, doing another job. Hired by scum, to kill scum.

A Batarian stood on a crate next to a young Quarian girl. "Fifteen hundred!" He yelled. "Fifteen hundred for the suit rat!"

"Fifteen hundred." Someone shouted. The Batarian pointed at the man and looked at the crowd. He waited for a few seconds and nodded.

"Alright, the Quarian goes to the gentlemen in the grey suit." The Batarian said. The man was large, probably in his fifties, and his hair was greying. He smiled at the young Quarian and she grimaced.

"Pig." Ari said. She wasn't angry about the fact it was a Quarian. The only other Quarians she cared about were her uncle and her friend, Tali'zorah. After her father died, Ari became angry and cold to anyone that looked at her, including her mother. Tali was the only one who she didn't hate, to put it simply. Ari and Tali still kept in touch through emails and such. Last she heard, Tali was on the citadel, trying to give some data to the council, the 'rulers' of citadel space, that she had recovered from a Geth. Ari looked through the scope of the rifle and aimed for the Batarian. She squeezed the trigger with one of her three fingers and a bullet left the gun. The Batarian fell off the crate when the bullet impacted and he was dead before he hit the ground.

The bidders and guards ran for cover as another bullet tore through a guard's abdomen. Ari hopped down off the crates and pulled her Lancer assault rifle off of her back. She fired a few rounds into a guard, his knees buckled, and he fell onto his stomach. Ari fired a few more rounds into the air and the bidders and slaves scattered. Three guards tried to contain the slaves and the bidders ran for the exit. Ari shot one of the guards in the back and he collapsed. The other two turned and were immediately gunned down. Another guard, a Turian, charged at her with a shotgun. He was to close already, she turned raised her hand and a orb of bluish-purple energy left her hand and collided with his chest. He went flying and slammed into a crate.

During pregnancy, Ari's mother was exposed to eezo during an engine malfunction. The eezo spread throughout Ari's infant body and developed. Ari developed biotic powers and had already been able to use the, by age seven due to the amount of eezo, even without an amp.

The guard scrambled for his shotgun and she grabbed his arm. She twisted and heard a snap and a scream. He fell on the ground, clutching his broken arm and screaming in pain and agony. She pumped a few rounds into his chest and put him out of his misery. A group of slaves cowered in the corner, one holding an assault rifle. A human, somewhere in his thirties, approached him.

"Who are you?" He asked. Ari looked at him oddly.

"Don't get the wrong idea, I just want the money from this job." She said and walked toward the auctioneer. The bullet had hit just below the collarbone. She didn't know much about Batarian anatomy, but she was surprised by how much blood could come out of one person. She took a picture as proof of finishing the job. The slaves just stood there in the hanger, unsure what to do. Everyone else was gone or dead besides them. The mercenary looked at them and sighed.

"What are you waiting for? Go." Ari said and shooed them away. The Quarian girl from before turned to look at her.

"Thank you, keelah se'lai." The girl said.

"Sure." Ari said. The slaves left the hanger a few minutes later. Ari started for the exit. She'd have to go back to Afterlife, Aria's club, to get her pay. Ari walked through the exit and out into Omega.

* * *

_Dear Ari, _

_ You'll never believe this! A human colony, Eden Prime, was attacked by the geth and a Spectre was behind it! That data I salvaged from that Geth a while ago proved it that a Spectre, Saren Arterius, was behind it all. The Geth are working with him and I'm helping another Spectre, Shepard, find him. I'm serving aboard a Spectre's ship! I cant believe it! Its the most amazing ship I've ever seen. It's a prototype frigate made by the Turians and Humans and its better than all the ships in the Flotilla combined. Anyways, I hope everything's been alright with you, you're uncle told me your still on Omega. Talk to you when I get a chance._

_ Your friend, _

_ Tali'Zorah_

Ari finished reading the email and turned off her omni-tool. Geth? On a human colony? That didn't add up, the geth stayed in the Perseus Veil, now where in alliance space. Ari had never worried about the Geth, and in her opinion she thought they should leave the Geth alone. Ari looked up at the occupants of the air car. Most of the occupants were just the rabble that lived on Omega, but a few Vorcha were onboard. Ari hated Vorcha, she didn't know why, she just did. The transport came to a stop and the occupants stood up and climbed out. Fortunately, the transport had stopped near Afterlife and it would take about five minutes to get there.

Ari stepped off the transport and head for the club. When she arrived, Fantel, an Elcor bouncer, was letting people in. Ari walked along the line and Fantel nodded at her as she walked past.

"Hey! Why doesn't she have to wait?" A man in line shouted. Fantel turned to him, Elcor didn't have a verbal way of expressing emotions, so they added a prefix that said what they felt as they spoke.

"Annoyed: When you work for Aria, you get in without waiting." Fantel said flatly.

"That suit rat works for Aria? Yeah, right." The human said. Ari turned and pulled out her Stilleto heavy pistol and aimed it at the man. A few people in the crowd gasped.

"What was that about a suit rat?" Ari said angrily. The man's eyes widened in fear and he raised his hands defensively. Ari holstered her pistol and walked into the club. The club was large, not as big as the hanger but big. Pounding music filled her head and various species walked around, laughing and drinking. She walked by the bar and saw a human passed out on a bar stool. Humans couldn't hold their liquor apparently. Ari had never drank before, due to her suit. Her weak immune system prevented her from doing a lot of things, and infection from a suit rupture was always a risk in combat. But that's were her barrier and shields came in handy.

Ari passed a drunk Asari who was attempting to dance but kept falling over. Asari were... Strange. They were mono-gendered, which meant they weren't male or female, and technically were both, depending on how you thought about it. They appeared like human females, but had blue skin, or purple, like Aria. In place of hair they have semi-flexible, cartilage based scalp crests. The most interesting things about Asari was their life-span, they lived for a thousand years. Ari continued on past a group of Salarians.

The horned aliens sat at a table, drinking a green, obviously alcoholic, drink. Salarians were made mostly of cartilage and had two horns on their heads. Salarians were amazingly intelligent, well most of them at least. Ari had met a Salarian, Mordin something, a while ago. He was smart, incredibly so, but he was all over the place. He talked in an odd way, like he only said the important words in a sentence.

Ari walked up the steps and passed one of Aria's guards. Aria, a purple asari with facial markings, that some Asari have, sat on a couch with her legs crossed looking over the club goers. Aria looked back at Ari and nodded her over.

"So," The Asari said. "Are those two-bit slavers dead?" Ari held up her omni-tool and showed her the picture of the dead Batarian. Aria smiled and nodded at a nearby guard. He typed something into his omni-tool and five thousand credits were transferred to her account. "Thanks kid."

"Yeah." Ari said and stood up. She walked down the stairs and out of the club. We enjoyed the music, but Ari had a hard time dealing with... Anyone. Ari walked out and toward her apartment. The man from before was still in line and watched her out of the corner of his eye. She glared at him and he looked the other way. Ari walked on for about an hour and soon arrived at her apartment. The door slid open and she walked in. She laid her weapons out on the table and walked into the kitchen. It was a small apartment, but Quarians lived that way.

Space on the Flotilla was lacking, and they had to use it sparingly. The apartment was actually much larger than her old room on the Rayya. Ari opened the refrigerator and pulled out one of the tubes of nutrient paste, the staple of Quarian diets. The paste was sterilized, disinfected, and finally smashed into a fine paste, then sterilized again. Ari attached the tube to the nozzle on her mask and begun to eat the paste. After years of eating it, it became bland and tasteless. Quarians could eat Turian cuisine, due to their both being dextro based. Unlike Asari, Humans, and most other species that were levo based. Quarians and Turians were dextro based, they could only eat dextro based foods. Quarians could eat Turian food, but it would have to be sterilized and then turned into a paste to be eaten with a mask.

Quarians had weak immune systems because of the years of living in a sterile environment. Thus, Quarians had to wear environmental suits that covered their entire bodies. Any germs could make a Quarian sick, even their own species could get them sick. Ari finished the nutrient paste and threw it in a garbage can. She walked back into the living room and turned on a vid. Something called Fleet and Flotilla. Tali had always wanted Ari to watch it and Ari reluctantly agreed. It was a cheesy soap-opera like show. About a Quarian and Turian who fall in love but can not be together. What teenage girl wouldn't like it? All but Ari, who hated most everything and everyone.

Ari skimmed through the channels and settled on _The Phage 2_, some horror movie about a Salarian bio-weapon. Ari sat back and disassembled her Lancer. Weapons of the galaxy were intricate and complicated. They fascinated her. To generate ammunition, a weapon shaves a projectile the size of a sand grain from a dense block of metal contained within the weapon's body. The projectile is launched at incredible speeds by decreasing its mass in a mass effect field. Thousands of rounds can be produced from a single ammunition block. Ammunition is never a concern because of this, but managing the weapon's internal heat is; if a weapon is fired constantly, the weapon will overheat, forcing the user to stop firing and cool off the weapon.

Ari finished cleaning the weapons and put them away. She sat down on the couch and watched the movie and soon fell asleep

* * *

Ari woke up to a load knock on the door. She stood up and walked to the door. Was it the landlord? No, its the middle of the month. Ari yawned and opened the door. A Krogan stood in the doorway hefting a shotgun. The Krogan pumped the shotguns choke and aimed. Ari launched a blue projectile at the Krogan and he flew backwards. Ari closed and locked the door. She ran over and picked up her Lancer and Talon and turned on her kinetic barrier. Another bang resonated out through the apartment. She ran over and opened the door. The Krogan charged in and a three bullets slammed against his shields. He roared and threw a punch that knocked against the barrier.

Krogan were massive reptiles, larger than most species around. They even rivaled Elcor with their strength and resilience. Ari had no idea why he was attacking her but he had just made a fatal mistake. She unloaded a flurry of bullets into the Krogan shields and they weakened. He charged at her and fired a blast from his shotgun. The rounds bounced off the barrier and Ari fired back and the shields collapsed. The shield were the first part. The Krogan was covered head to toe in armor. Krogans were naturally warriors, the Krogan had fought the Turians in a full scale war that resulted in their narrow defeat.

After the war, the Salarians and Turians created the Genophage, a bio-weapon that made Krogan woman next to infertile, to prevent another Krogan rebellion. Ari would have to wear through his armor before she could beat him. She raised her hand and a wave of biotic energy lifted the Krogan into the air. She peppered his armor with machine gun fire and a piece of armor broke. The Krogan howled as a bullet tore into his flesh. The lift field wore away and the Krogan fell onto his back. He stood up and ran at her firing his shotgun as he went. The blast knocked Ari on her back and she scrambled backward and uploaded armor-piercing rounds to her Lancer. She fired into the Krogan's chest and he collapsed onto the ground.

Ari stood up and walked over to the Krogan. His breathing was hoarse and blood leaked through his armor onto the floor. Other people had come out of their apartments to see what had happened. Ari bent down onto her knees and activated the Krogan's omni-tool. A hologram popped up and a Turian appeared.

"...You will be payed when the Quarian is dead! She's a friend of the other suit rat that caused all my problems. I want her dead. You'll be payed ten thousand for this job once its done. I cannot stress how important this is. Get. It. Done." The Turian said. Ari stood up and kicked the dying Krogan in his stomach.

"Bosh'tet." She hissed. He groaned and his eyes closed. She picked up the shotgun. A Tornado shotgun, an expensive and powerful weapon. She carried it into her apartment and left the dead Krogan in the hall. Now it was someone else's problem. But now Ari had a problem of her own. The Turian, whoever he was, was trying to kill her. He had said something about another Quarian. Who could that be? Then it hit her. Tali. She had said she helping a Spectre, Shepard catch another Spectre. He was trying to kill her because of her connection with Tali. That Turian must have been Saren.

Ari forced herself to calm down and the adrenaline faded from her body. Ari needed to leave Omega. If she could find Tali maybe she could help. She locked the door and set down the weapons. Ari activated her omni-tool and started typing.

_Tali, _

_ That message you sent me just got me into a lot of trouble. I don't know how he found me, but that Spectre, Saren, is hunting me. I need help. Could you meet me on a Omega. I don't know if I can stay here. Saren sent a bounty hunter to my apartment. Answer as soon as you can. _

_ Your friend,_

_ Ari'Vannis_

Ari finished typing the email and sent it. Now, all she had to do is wait for Tali to respond. Ari turned on a vid and watched it to calm herself down. Put an encrypted the lock. She wasn't very good with technology besides basic skills. Why was she so scared? Ari had been in danger countless times, and never felt fear like this. After a few minutes she had calmed down and was watching another show, _Nekyia Corridor_. Ari sat back and looked over her new shotgun. She put it away and laid back on the couch. A few hours passed and Ari became drowsy again. Ari laid back and closed her eyes, a few minutes later she fell into a deep sleep.


End file.
